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Responsible Before God: Human Responsibility in Karl Barth’s Moral Theology
Leyden, Michael
Leyden, Michael
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2014-04
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Abstract
This thesis contributes to the recent scholarly re-evaluation of Karl Barth’s moral theology
through an examination of the theme of human responsibility in his thought. The language
of responsibility recurs throughout Barth’s ethical writings, and its frequency and strategic
significance in his articulation of the nature of the active human agent in Christian ethics
means it is worthy of scholarly consideration. To date, no extended study of this topic in
Barth’s thought exists, and, apart from critical summaries of his use of responsibility
language in select parts of the Church Dogmatics in corners of the secondary literature,
responsibility-ethicists have tended to ignore Barth’s work on this topic. My intention,
through exegetical reading of several key texts, is to provide explication, clarification, and
analysis of his understanding of human responsibility. On the basis of this exegetical work I
shall argue that the idea of responsibility is in fact a key component of Barth’s theological
ethics and significantly informs his presentation of human agency.
Following the introductory chapter, the central chapters of the thesis are exegetical
readings of human responsibility in three major texts from the Barth corpus: the Ethics
lectures; the ethics of CD II/2; and the special ethics of CD III/4. The fifth and final
chapter is a synopsis of the development of Barth’s understanding and his articulation of
human responsibility across these texts. My constructive proposal as to how we may
understand Barth’s overall account is based on the preceding exegetical work. I argue that
the ethics of the Church Dogmatics ought to be read together, and that in doing so we see that
the mature Barth offers: 1) a theological description of human responsibility, which I argue
is a kind of moral ontology in which the human agent is called to inhabit a particular space
in relation to God; and 2) concrete indications of the kind of responsible actions that
represent and enable the embedding of that description in human life. He develops what I
term “indicative practices” which give shape to human lives, enabling human agents to
navigate the moral space into which they have been placed. These two elements taken
together are, I suggest, the sum of Barth’s account of human responsibility.
Citation
Leyden, M. J. Rev. (2014). Responsible Before God: Human Responsibility in Karl Barth’s Moral Theology (Doctoral dissertation). University of Chester, United Kingdom.
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University of Chester
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en